Dream in four parts

Vignette one: I have borrowed a train

I have borrowed a train and need to return it before daybreak, when the people who actually use it will need it. The problem is that I do not know where I am supposed to return it to or how to drive it. I am also aware on some level that I did not actually get permission to borrow the train, but at no time during the dream do I think, "I have stolen a train." The landscape in front of me is lightly wooded and hilly, and probably suggested to me by one corner of the campus of Stuffwhitepeople Like University, where I used to teach. The train tracks go up and down the hills and around in a complex pattern, and I am at the top of the tallest hill. If I start the train down the hill it might roll around to the right location, like I was pushing wooden trains around on the kids' train table. But where I am trying to get the train to go? Suddenly, I realize the train automatically returns to the station, like the Roomba returning to its recharging stand. I am safe. But...

Vignette two: Acid zombies heart BitchPhD

There are men at the station wearing T-shirts that say "I Heart BitchPhD." I am aware that they are wearing these shirts ironically. The men have an acid that when they spray it on you, continues to eat away at your whole body until there is nothing left. They spray my left arm. Soon I will die. I am aware that the men are someone doing this as a theatrical critique of liberal politics. Now lots of people have been sprayed and we are in an open field. If a sprayed person touches another person, they spread the acid, giving he other person a death sentence. I, like most people, avoid touching anyone. But some people come together as couples, smearing each other with their acid covered bodies in an effort to die quicker. This is looking like a good option to me.

Vignette three: Acid rain

I am back at the train station. The men are now dressed in police uniforms. They have a device that looks like a white prism. If you jump into it, you are instantly disintegrated and a flash of light sends you into the sky. The policemen are jumping into it to avoid slow death by acid. They see me and throw me in. I am grateful.

But once the acid people are in the sky, they fall down like rain. I am cowering in the entryway to an office building, to avoid the fatal rain, but the rain is dissolving the building. I go deeper into the basement of the building. There are lots of people all over, but no one can decide what the best shelter will be. I am in a shopping plaza. I am at the beach. The world will end.

Vignette four: The movie is over, but I am still here

It is now obvious to me that this is a movie, what with the overtones of zombies and apocalypse. The credits roll, thankfully. But I am still here. What is going on? I push behind the movie screen onto the stage. There are props and flats around. Will I go back to the zombie world? I push behind another wall. And another. Then I wake up.